


hey look ma i made it

by Yanara126



Category: Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Video Game)
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Child Neglect, Cussing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, I do that, Implied Sexual Content, In more ways than one, Kanerah has a talk with Tamary, Tamary is a bastard, also I don't understand why nobody liked the tiefling sisters, but even her horny thoughts aren't really explicit, but it's really minor, have you seen them?, mentions of affairs, my children all love each other very much, not theirs though, she really needs it, sickeningly so, tamary is kind of horny, they are baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28741128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yanara126/pseuds/Yanara126
Summary: It's the queens birthday, and yet she sits in the dark of her room alone, staring at a piece of paper. Kanerah has no intention of letting her love stew in misery, much less on her birthday.
Relationships: Kanerah/The Baroness/Kalikke (Pathfinder: Kingmaker), The Baroness/Kanerah (Pathfinder: Kingmaker)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	hey look ma i made it

**Author's Note:**

> Finally done! And in genuary too, ironically. I write almost exclusively gen in my whole life and now I write a romance story. Oh well. Kanerah and Kalikke really need more attention! I love them lot. I need to write something for Kalikke too soon. They and my baroness are my very first OT3 and I will never understand why there is just no content for them. It's sad. But I guess that just means I have to make the content!  
> So I hope you enjoy!^^

It was strangely cold in her chambers. The soft fabric of her sheets felt rough against her hand, and the light of the torches falling through her window was pale. Her own vague shimmer was dimmed, her halo gone, her wings vanished. The paper in her hand crinkled as she shifted her fingers, and the sound carried far too loudly through the empty room. The writing was fine, ornate, a piece of art really, not the way one would wright for practicality’s sake. The ink was faded, but its quality assured that it would still be readable for many years to come.

The fire in the fireplace crackled. The paper did the same. Not for the first time Tamary felt her fingers twitch, as if they had developed a life of its own just to rid her of the innocent sheet of paper in her hand. And just like all the times before she stayed her hand. The paper remained. Her gaze fixed to it like the enemies’ on her.

From outside she could hear merry chattering, excited shouts, and the occasional boom of fireworks. The revelry of the day would continue for many more hours she knew. The alcohol flowed in rivers. There were games and merchants on every corner. The capital was alight with laughter and revelry. And she was in here. Alone. Staring at this damned piece of paper once again.

So many years had gone by, and still she couldn’t this behind her. Every year she had to come back to it. At least since coming here she’d gotten better at enjoying herself first. At this point there was really no way to avoid it. The whole day people would come to her, inviting her to something or other, be it random citizens excited at meeting the queen or her companions.

Suddenly door creaked open, letting light a warmer light fall in. Or perhaps it just seemed warmer because of who entered with it.

“And so the queen sits holed up all alone on her birthday.” Tamary smiled, glancing towards the figure in the open door. The light falling in from behind them almost seemed like its own halo.

“Kanerah.” The tiefling gave herself unimpressed.

“Every year you vanish somewhere. One would think you don’t enjoy the attention.” Tamary gave a small smile. Not at all comparable to her usual self-assured grin, but a smile nonetheless.

Kanerah kept up the pressure for a few moments longer before giving a small sigh and crossing the distance between them. With her usual grace that made her lean muscles subtly shift under her skin she sat down next to Tamary and gave her small kiss on the cheek, before shifting her attention to the piece of paper in Tamary’s hand.

“What is that?” Tamary took a moment to answer, the warm, firm shoulder pressed against hers was still as distracting as it had been the first time, years ago.

“It’s- it was a gift.” She couldn’t say it. It was silly. It was stupid. It was ridiculous for an adult, much less a queen. She had said so many things. A lot of them stupid, insulting, downright lies, and even confessions of love, but she couldn’t say this. Instead she handed the paper to Kanerah with a sigh, turning away, face in her hands and elbows on her knees. She didn’t want to see someone else read it.

“Names?” Names. That was all this was to an outsider. Of course they were just names, names that had haunted Tamary for her all her adult life, without having met even one of the people who wore them.

“Suitors. Rich merchants, lower nobles, men and women from all over Taldor. Anyone with enough money to comfortably provide for a wife without her having to work and still live in luxury.” There, she’d said it. She’d said it and nothing bad had happened. The world wasn’t crumbling, her mother hadn’t suddenly jumped out from behind the bed to berate her again.

“Oh. I thought it was a hitlist.” A short moment of silence. “Is it?” Tamary snickered into her hands and then finally turned back around, a dopey smile on her face.

“No. I don’t know any of them. Didn’t stick around for it.” Kanerah kept her eyes on the list for a moment more, lips pulled into a face of undeniable disappointment.

“Pity.” With that she turned around, an eyebrow lifted, and fixed Tamary with expecting stare, one eyebrow elegantly raised. Clearly she wasn’t content with the explanation. Not that Tamary could fault her for that. But… Where would she even start?

In hopes of buying herself some time she swept her eyes over the room. It was dark with only the fire lighting it, as the sun had set a while ago. There were shadows in the corners, dancing in rhythm with the flames, ever in motion. The fire crackled as the logs broke in the heat she still couldn’t feel. Next to her she knew Kanerah was still waiting. In another situation Tamary might have enjoyed the dominance radiating from her, but right now she just felt like melting into the ground and avoiding the story she knew she could no longer avoid.

“So, you sit on your own in your room, staring at an ancient list of admirers you’ve never met, on your birthday, while the whole city is ready to carry you through the streets. Do I have this right?” Well, if she put it like that it sounded silly. Not that Tamary hadn’t known that before.

“Yeah. I just- yeah.” One more big sigh, and now she had to do it. Long years of steeping in her complicated feelings hardly did her any favours though. From the beginning then…

“My birthdays were never about me, for my whole childhood. I was a doll for my father to show off, I’ve always known that. It was to stand around and look pretty for the day, be nice and say thank you to the nobles who showed up for the festival, take the token gifts they bring you, and be quiet the rest of the time. That’s the way it always was. But sometimes those gifts were actually nice. I got my first lute that way.” One of the few untainted memories from her childhood. She didn’t remember anymore who’d given it to her, so she couldn’t have a grudge against them. “So, even though I’d known for a while that I was going to leave, I decided to wait for my 20th birthday. I thought maybe I’d get something useful, or at least some money, or something I could sell. You know, with the whole turning of age hype. Instead I got… this.” And what a scene it had been. Lots of applause, hungry gazes, calculating words. Even now Tamary felt the corset cut into her chest more sharply than it ever had before, pressing the air out of her lungs. “It was my mother’s idea. She wanted me to marry as soon as possible, to avoid what had happened to her.”

“Your mother the mistress?” Tamary winced. She held no love or pity for her mother, and objectively she could say what her mother had pulled before her birth had been very impressive, but her childhood spent suffering from these choices dimmed her admiration significantly.

“Yeah, you see, my mother was… playing multiple sides to say. Visiting nobles, family of my father -she had a prolonged affair with his sister for example- she was playing all of them. Acting like the sweet innocent girl and letting herself be showered with gifts. But with my birth and my father’s official claiming of me, all of that became obvious, at least to the parties involved. None of them would admit it of course, but that didn’t exactly make her very popular with the people in power. And my father sure couldn’t care less. He let her stay to take care of me, but he certainly didn’t care enough to divorce his wife for her.” Why his wife hadn’t divorced him was another matter entirely that Tamary had no intention of ever examining too closely. “So although she was now taken care of, she was also pulled into the social schemes of the nobility. A rather deadly game as I’m sure you’re aware of.” Almost on their own Tamary’s eyes wandered over to Kanerah.

“Intimately.” Kanerah’s eyes sparkled with something cold, those nice creases around them pulled into something decidedly not nice. A quick thought flashed through Tamary’s mind, that she should take care to change that later, and heat up that nice fire that burnt in her again. But unfortunately, they were having an uncomfortable conversation that shouldn’t be left hanging, and so Tamary begrudgingly pushed all thought of steamy nights away for later and looked away again.

“My father didn’t give a shit. My mother may not have liked the situation I put her in, but she was excellent at it. The whole list consists of rich, but unimportant people. No one that could possibly have been a threat to my father. To marry me they would have had to settle in my father’s capital, if they weren’t already there. That way he wouldn’t lose his little doll and get control over whatever assets my spouse would bring to the marriage, and so he let it happen.”

“Is that why you came to me?” The question is simple, there is no fire underneath it, nor the chilling frost from before, and when Tamary turned to look at her, Kanerah wore her mask of easy curiosity. For the first time in a while Tamary couldn’t tell if Kanerah was angry at her or not. She sighed. Why must honesty always be so exhausting?

“In the beginning. I’ll admit, seeing a hot tiefling from Quadira obviously flirting with me definitely kindled some thoughts of sweet revenge.” And how sweet it was. Then and now all the more, when it was no longer just the sex. It was love and it was happiness, and both were so much sweeter than sex could ever be.

Kanerah snorted, and with tiny, hopefully not noticeable start, Tamary noticed that she must have forgotten to close her mouth. Oh well. Perhaps not her most refined declaration of love, but maybe not everything needed to be. The soft, exasperated smile on Kanerah’s face made everything worth it.

“You are terrible, and I have no idea how you keep everyone tied around finger with lines like that.”

“Why, I don’t know. Perhaps you’d like to pay me in kind and tie something around some other part of me?” Now with the uncomfortable confessions out of the way, the banter came much easier to Tamary again. The grin stretched across her face entirely on its own, and the room suddenly seemed much warmer than before. Or perhaps that was just her own body. Oh definitely her own body, with Kanerah’s low lidded gaze slowly shifting over her.

“Perhaps later. For now I believe there is a party still waiting for its guest of honour.” Tamary pouted. Parties sure were nice, but something else would be even nicer now. But sadly for her Kanerah had already pulled away, though her suggestive smile hadn’t disappeared. Tamary wasn’t sure if that was nice or frustrating. Unfortunately, she didn’t get to enjoy it for long either way as Kanerah turned away.

“And besides, I believe my sister would be very unhappy with me if I kept you for myself tonight.” That sentence was enough to completely fry Tamary’s brain for a second. Only for a second though, and with renewed enthusiasm she pushed off from her bed and sprinted after Kanerah.

Behind her the room light up again with a warm, receding glow as she rushed out. The renewed halo lit up the room briefly, and her wings brushed doorframe. Tamary herself didn’t notice, too distracted by the promise of the attention of both her favourite people, coupled with the desire to just leave the last minutes behind. But Kanerah noticed, and she also noticed the crackling sound of burning paper in the fire place.

Satisfaction puller her lips into a smile, as she strolled away, back in direction of the party, just fast enough to tease Tamary along without quite letting her catch up.

Good. And may it burn in hell forever for hurting what’s hers.


End file.
